Academy funding: comment from the Department for Education

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

A Department spokesman said:

The current system of academy funding was introduced by the last government. It relies on local authorities to provide accurate information about their spending and occasionally individual local authorities make errors which lead to academies getting too much or too little funding. It is wrong to blame Departmental officials for errors that have occurred in local authority returns.

Further information

Academy top-up funding (LACSEG) is calculated on the basis of info given to the Department by local authorities. This is via the section 251 form - this is a complex form and sometimes local authorities put some spending into the wrong category. Because the dept relies on this data, if it’s wrong then some academies get too much or too little top-up funding. The vast majority of local authorities are able to provide the correct data. This system was introduced under the last government and mistakes along these lines have happened in previous years. The Government has said many times that the system is unfair and unclear, that is why we’re proposing changes to the school funding formula.